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 Sowa languageLanguage code: sww Sowa is an extinct language of south-central Pentecost. It was displaced by Apma following the depopulation of the area due largely to introduced diseases, which forced Sowa-speaking men to take Apma-speaking wives who then passed their own language on to their children. By the 1970s, there were only around twenty native Sowa speakers left, and the last one died in 2000. Although the last generation of Sowa speakers is gone, many of their children are still around. Most remember only a few words and phrases of Sowa, but the children of the last speakers retain significant (though not fluent) knowledge of the language. Local people view Sowa as part of their cultural heritage and lament its loss, and several prominent individuals dream of reviving it. There is even talk of teaching Sowa in primary schools. However, it is hard to see this being done successfully, since nobody alive is currently fluent in Sowa, no school exclusively serves the former Sowa area and Vanuatu schoolchildren are overburdened with languages already. Sowa was very closely related to Ske language, and the two could conceivably be classified as dialects. (Poor data led Darrell Tryon to underestimate the cognancy between Sowa and Ske in his 1976 survey of Vanuatu languages: my own estimate is 85-90%, which is well within the range of dialectal differences.) However, locals and linguists have traditionally treated Sowa and Ske as separate languages. Dialects and rangeMelsisi River formed Sowa's north boundary with Apma, and a creek near Levizendam (there is debate about exactly which one) formed the southern boundary with Ske. The language was also spoken in parallel areas on the east coast. The Sowa remembered by people in Lesuube village, at the north-western corner of the Sowa area, differs from that remembered by people further south. However, people disagree as to whether this represents a long-standing dialect difference, or simply varying degrees of corruption by Apma and Ske. Records of SowaThe only linguist to take an interest in Sowa while the language was still alive was David Walsh, who compiled a vocabulary list in 1969. This list is now in the Vanuatu National Library, and part of it was reproduced in Darrell Tryon's survey (New Hebrides Languages: An Internal Classification). David Walsh's research was done mainly through John Bule Sese of Bwaravet, a man who was well-regarded for his knowledge of many languages but who, regrettably, was not a native speaker of Sowa. I have heard rumours that recordings of an old language - most likely Sowa - were made by missionaries at Ranwadi Churches of Christ College. However, I have found no trace of these. Local people, realising that their language was in danger of being lost without trace, have made several touching attempts to write it down. Chief Adam Bulesisbwat of Lesuube has some notes on Sowa that he made prior to the death of his father, a native Sowa speaker; he kindly shared these with me. Another set of notes made at Lesuube was reportedly destroyed by water. Chief Isaiah Tabi Vahka of Waterfall Village, a local language enthusiast whose Sowa-speaking father died when he was young, began writing the language down while at school, encouraged by a teacher who told him that one day white people would come and would be interested in his work. (A decade later, I came and fulfilled this prediction.) Isaiah later led an effort to compile a First Book of Sowa Language Tamzon Nan Dutmekan Lon Dolod Ne Sowa, based on the recollections of various local old people. This book was completed in 2006, and a copy is in the Vanuatu National Library. Unfortunately, these local efforts to write down Sowa language were marred by inconsistent spelling, and much of the 'Sowa' they contained was obviously corrupted by Apma and Ske. Matters were not helped by the fact that the writers lacked the means to circulate their material widely (only five copies of Tamzon Nan Dutmekan were produced) or to correct obvious errors. After meeting Isaiah, I joined his effort to help document Sowa language, first by printing more copies of Tamzon Nan Dutmekan and later collaborating on another booklet of words and phrases, Samfala toktok long Sowa lanwis. In this, we received the invaluable help of Stephen Buleray, son of the very last native Sowa speaker and possibly the person who remembers the language best. Debbie Curtis in England kindly organised donations of stationery to help with this and other language-related projects. By putting together the recollections of numerous local people, and David Walsh's notes, it is possible to reconstruct the basics of Sowa vocabulary reasonably well, and to deduce much about the nature of the language. However, because no linguist ever worked directly with a native Sowa speaker, certain questions about the grammar and phonology of the language remain unanswered, and a fully authentic reconstruction of Sowa language will probably never be possible.
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